The Supreme Court in Pakistan is currently listening to various complaints about a law called the Practice and Procedure Act. The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, is leading the discussions, and they are being shown live to the public, just like the previous hearing.

Chief Justice remarks on Practice and Procedure Act

The Chief Justice mentioned that Practice and Procedure Act affects his role and the roles of other senior judges. He explained that while it doesn’t exactly reduce his authority, it limits it, and it also divides that authority between two other senior judges. This situation will also affect future Chief Justices, which is why the whole Supreme Court is handling this case. Justice Isa also mentioned that they want to finish dealing with this case today.

One of the people who brought the case to court, Niazullah Niazi’s lawyer, Akram Chaudhry, argued that this law is only meant for a few specific people. He said that Section 3 of the Practice and Procedure Act interferes with the Supreme Court’s power, and Section 5 allows for the right to appeal in previous decisions. Akram Chaudhry believes that only the parliament can allow this through a special change to the constitution, which needs approval from two-thirds of the members.

The federal government, following the Supreme Court’s instructions, has given its response to five questions from the court. In its reply, the government said that a panel of eight judges from the court canceling the Practice and Procedure Act was against the constitution. They also mentioned that the former Chief Justice of Pakistan made changes to the rules, formed panels, and made decisions.

The Supreme Court has held one hearing of this case with the full bench and another with a larger bench of five judges. The larger bench, in its first hearing on April 13, stopped the implementation of the law temporarily.

During the previous hearing, Chief Justice Isa said that it’s time for the judges to admit when they make mistakes. He pointed out that some judges have supported military takeovers in the past, but no one should consider themselves above the Constitution. He emphasized that they should put their egos aside and think about Pakistan’s welfare.

The Practice and Procedure Act had given the authority to create panels for public interest cases to a group of three senior judges.

To give some background, the previous government had introduced the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act in 2023, which aimed to limit the Chief Justice’s power to form panels and assign cases to them. This law had been approved by the parliament, but it was stopped from taking effect by an eight-judge panel, which included the Chief Justice, following three petitions that questioned its validity.

The SC (Practice and Procedure act) Bill 2023 had several goals, including giving the power to initiate cases to a committee of three senior judges, including the Chief Justice. The main objective was to make the Supreme Court’s proceedings more transparent and safeguard the right to appeal.

The law also specified how panels should be formed, stating that a committee consisting of the Chief Justice and the two most senior judges would be responsible for creating panels to hear cases, with decisions made by a majority vote.

For cases that fall under the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction according to Article 184(3) of the Constitution, the bill required them to be presented to the committee mentioned above for discussion before they could proceed.

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